UN Human Rights Committee registers Belarusian opposition activist’s complaint

The UN Human Rights Committee has notified opposition activist Zhanna Abramava that it registered her complaint over two detentions.

The Committee will not forward the complaint to the Belarusian government and the latter will have to either confirm or deny Ms. Abramava’s claims that the detentions were in violation of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, human rights defender Raman Kislyak told BelaPAN.

Ms. Abramava was twice arrested on suspicion of committing a criminal offense and was held in custody for 61 and 72 hours, respectively.

She was cleared of the suspicions on both occasions.

Ms. Abramava believes that the police had no right to detain her for more than 48 hours without a judge deciding on whether she should be released or her term in custody should be extended.

The woman refers to Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights whereby “anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge.”

The opposition activist insists that the police violated her right to liberty and security.

Mr. Kislyak said earlier this year that the requirement was often flouted by the Belarusian police “and this deprives people detained on a criminal charge of the guarantees of a fair and impartial decision on their arrest or release.” “Such guarantees of impartiality may be given only by the institution of judge. And we, human rights defenders, plan to push for the application of this rule in practice,” he noted.

Ms. Abramava complained about the detentions to authorities, including the prosecutor general, earlier this year, but to no avail.